Surprises on the Surface
by elfgirl931
Summary: Aza Brosca's adventures outside of Orzammar, especially those that involve a certain handsome Antivan elf.
1. Tell Me Something Good

Tell Me Something Good

"You are quiet this evening,_ mi tesorina_," Zevran remarked as his clever fingers kneaded at the knots in Aza's shoulders. He paused after dipping his fingers into his little jar of fragrant oil. "Quieter than usual."

Aza grunted noncommittally, giving her shoulders the slightest shrug. Zevran was not yet sure whether she meant to urge him back to his massage, or whether she simply didn't want to talk. He settled back into his task, content to wait her out.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of staring at the canvas wall of their tent, Aza sighed. "Didn't like going back to Orzammar," she muttered. Zevran wisely stayed silent. "I'm a Gray Warden now, but… I didn't like you seeing the way they all looked at me."

"Whatever do you mean? They looked at you like the avenging goddess that you are!"

"Be serious," she said, swatting at his hand. "I might be a Gray Warden, I might have won their Proving, I might have gone further into the Deep Roads than any of them ever have, and I might have put their new king on the throne, but all I ever will be to them is a Casteless. They look at me and they see a brand."

Zevran stilled his hands and closed the oil jar, putting it aside slowly and deliberately. He tugged gently at Aza's shoulder until she reluctantly turned her body towards him. A tight, bitter expression contorted her face, and her eyes shone with angry tears.

"Do you think that _I_ see you that way?" he asked, coaxing her hands into his. "Do you think that your fellow Warden, silly as he is, sees you that way? Perhaps Wynne, or even Sten?"

"No," she said grudgingly, wiping her eyes with her forearm.

"Well then. I say that you give no more thought to those who wish you ill. Those who are important, chiefly myself, think that you are an absolute divine goddess."

Aza rolled her eyes and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "All right then, lay it on thick."

"It is nothing but the truth," he protested, rubbing his shoulder. "You are the most lovely little - "

"Shut up and kiss me," she interrupted, but her hands were gentle as she cupped his cheeks.

Zevran was more than happy to oblige, and he sank slowly down on the bedroll, pulling her with him. He was surprised when she broke away and pillowed her head on his chest with a sigh.

"Something still bothers you, my dove?" he asked, stroking the hair out of her face.

"Leske," Aza said finally. More tears spilled from her eyes, and she dashed them away angrily. "I had to kill him. I had to. He was my best friend but he would have…."

"You sound as though you do not believe yourself," Zevran remarked. "I know what it is to kill someone you… care for, as you know," he said quietly. "It is not something you will heal from quickly."

They both lay quietly for a time, until Zevran propped himself up on one elbow and grinned down at her. "Come, let us not dwell on sadness. Tell me something that makes you smile. Apart from me, of course."

Aza rolled her eyes at him, but then wrinkled her nose in consideration. She smiled when she hit on something. "My sister. Rica. You met her, for a few minutes at least."

"Tell me about her, then. I have regaled you with plenty of fine tales of my life, now it is time you returned the favor."

"All right, all right." She started talking, slowly at first but then with more pleasure as she got into describing Rica's face, and the way she'd kept her safe, and kept going until their lantern burned out, and late into the night until she fell asleep mid-sentence.

When Aza opened her eyes the next morning, Zevran was grinning at her. "I believe that last night was the longest I have ever heard you speak at one time," he remarked.

"Don't you ever sleep?" she grumbled, pulling the blanket over her face.

He yanked it back down and planted a few kisses on her cheeks and nose. "Of course, and I did all the more soundly last night because your heart was lighter.

Aza caught his face and kissed him firmly on the lips. "Don't know what I'd do without you, Zev," she said with uncharacteristic softness.

His heart beat a strange rhythm in his chest as he looked down at her, but he did not want to pause and try to understand it. "You will not have to find out, I assure you."


	2. Reunion

_ That was almost too easy_, Zevran thought lazily, sifting through papers and contracts on the former guildmaster's desk. He sipped at a glass of chilled wine and looked idly out the window, watching the play of shadows from the branches of the orange tree in the garden. Orchestrating his most masterful assassination to date and the subsequent takeover of the Crows should have been quite the proud moment for him. But after his adventures in Ferelden, the victory didn't have quite the savor that it should have.

Zevran sighed and drained his glass when the door opened, admitting his current second-in-command. "Yes, what is it, Paolo?"

The man bowed briefly. "Master Arainai, there is a… young lady demanding to see you. She has already threatened to kill the gate guards if we don't let her in."

"Really? My charms have already have the ladies of Rialto threatening to break in?" Zevran twirled his empty glass by its stem and propped his feet up on the desk. "And here I've only been back in Antiva for a few months."

Paolo shifted his weight nervously, and Zevran glanced over the rim of his glass with interest. Usually the man had nerves of steel. "She is not Antivan, Master, not even human. A dwarven woman, in fact. Her accent is Fereldan and she has some odd tattoos on her face. "

Zevran felt the glass falling out of his hand, and caught it just before it hit the desk. _It couldn't be._

Luckily, Paolo didn't seem to notice Zevran's momentary lapse of composure. "Master Arainai?" he was saying. "What would you like us to do with her?"

"Let her in immediately. Clear the halls and bring her here. And Paolo," Zevran added softly, picking a dagger up off the desk and running his finger along the blade, "discretion is everything."

It was all that Zevran could do to keep from jumping up and pacing the room once Paolo was gone. _Maintain composure,_ he thought sternly to himself. _It could be any dwarf. It does no good to -_

The door to his office opened abruptly and a short figure barged in, waving Paolo back in irritation and slamming the door behind her. "This is how I get treated, walking here all the way from Amaranthine?" a very familiar voice grumbled. Aza pulled her traveling cloak off and let it fall to the floor, planting her hands on her hips. "Your guards were sodding annoying, and Antivan Crows or not, I was about to - "

Zevran was across the room before she could finish, pulling her into his arms and lifting her off the floor. Her words were muffled against his chest as he held her tighter, burying his face in her hair and trying to remember how to breath. He sank to his knees and let himself fall backwards onto the cool marble floor with Aza on top of him, listening to her startled laughter and finally, _finally_, feeling her lips on his.

There were months poured into that kiss, months of worry and yearning and doubt on both sides. They parted only reluctantly to catch their breath, and Zevran drank in Aza's smile as she looked down at him.

"You look thin, my heart," he murmured, tracing her cheek with one finger. "I'll have to feed you some proper Antivan food."

Aza sat up to straddle his hips with a roll of her eyes and then helped him to sit up. "_I'm _supposed to be the emotionally constipated one, Zev," she said drily. "You haven't seen me for over six months and all you can think to say is that I look thin?"

Zevran settled his arms around her neck. "Forgive me. Shall I say, then, that I have not been able to sleep for worrying about you? That I have had nightmares of darkspawn carrying you off, and that rumors of your disappearance reached my ears weeks ago and I feared the worst?"

"All right, all right, don't lay the guilt on me," she retorted. "I got things taken care of in Amaranthine, and then I just… I don't know. Felt like I needed to get away from it all. Maybe forever. Too many people relying on me. And I missed you," she added in a low voice, ducking her head to rest it against his shoulder.

"Well, if there is anything the Crows are good at, it is helping someone to disappear," Zevran grinned. He got to his feet and pulled Aza up, keeping hold of both her hands and kissing each of them in turn. "For now, I think that it is time for us to retire to the bedchamber and continue our long-overdue reunion there, wouldn't you say?"

Aza unbuckled her belt and let it drop to the floor, raising her eyebrow in a challenge. She took a few steps towards the door while undoing the clasps of her jerkin. "You coming?" she asked coyly.

Zevran hurried to follow her, more than eager to make up for lost time.


End file.
